· Private foundation
Elaine Stern Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k6 grants · $175k
- $50k–250k9 grants · $575k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ALTERNATIVES FOR GIRLS | $100,000 |
| DETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA | $75,000 |
| BRILLIANT DETROIT | $75,000 |
| HUMBLE DESIGN INC | $65,000 |
| DETROIT HORSE POWER | $60,000 |
| MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY - HILLEL | $50,000 |
| REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - STUDENT LIFE DEVELOPMENT | $50,000 |
| BEYOND BASICS | $50,000 |
| COLLEGE CAREER AND BEYOND | $50,000 |
| WINNING FUTURES | $45,000 |
| GESHER HUMAN SERVICES | $40,000 |
| RACQUET UP DETROIT | $30,000 |
| MOTOWN MUSEUM | $25,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN | $25,000 |
| BEDS 4 KIDS | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY18–24, $110k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 20% of Elaine Stern Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in MI; by stated purpose, 88%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
17 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $50k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
ALTERNATIVES FOR GIRLS7× · 2019–2025 · $775k · revenue +114%
MOTOWN HISTORICAL MUSUEM INC7× · 2018–2025 · $600k · revenue +350%- DPDETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA7× · 2019–2025 · $475k · revenue +46%
Funded once
- ROREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANone grant, 2018 · $100k
- CCCOLLEGE CAREER AND BEYOND (FKA MIDNIGHT GOLF PROGRAM)one grant, 2024 · $50k
- JCJACKSON COUNTY INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL DISTRICTone grant, 2018 · $5k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The mission of desc is to cultivate local workforce talent to align with the needs of the business community through partnerships with key workforce agencies, faith- and community- based organizations, education and training institutions,…
The organization works with k-12, higher education and other community partners to design and implement programs to improve rates of college persistence and completion.
Friends of the children - detroit has a mission of impacting generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships and professional mentors - 12+ years, no matter what. 92% go on to enroll in…
Progressionista serves Detroit girls ages 8-12 with literacy and mentorship programming and provides annually 250 books in total for participants to keep, in-person masterclasses with women professionals, hands-on career projects, and…
Empowering young people to maximize their potential through professional performing arts training and the creation of theatrical and musical art that engages, transforms and inspires.
Inspired by its heritage since 1906, matrix human services advocates for and services the most vulnerable in the metropolitan detroit community and empowers individiuals and families to enhance the quality of their lives and achieve self…
To enable african americans and people in need to reach their full human potential
DPSFs mission is to create and enhance educational opportunities for over 50,000 Detroit Public Schools Community Districts students, families and educators. DPS Foundation was organized to ensure DPS, now DPSCD student and families to…
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
Detroit regional chamber foundation, inc. (the "foundation") is dedicated to growing programs or initiatives that are important to ensuring the detroit region's economy is one of the fastest growing in the u.s.
How this is measured
17 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 24 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds ALTERNATIVES FOR GIRLS ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds MOTOWN HISTORICAL MUSUEM INC ↗
- Who funds DETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA ↗
- Who funds BRILLIANT DETROIT ↗
- Who funds Humble Design Inc ↗
- Who funds RACQUET UP DETROIT ↗
- Who funds THE MIDNIGHT GOLF PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds CONGREGATION B'NAI B'RITH HILLEL ↗
- Who funds DETROIT HORSE POWER ↗
- Who funds BEYOND BASICS ↗
- Who funds WINNING FUTURES ↗
- Who funds GESHER HUMAN SERVICES ↗
- Who funds JASMYNNS VOICE INC ↗
- Who funds KADIMA ↗
- Who funds BEDS 4 KIDS ↗
- Who funds CANTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · Flagstar Foundation Inc · United Jewish Foundation · DTE Energy Foundation · Marvin and Betty Danto Family Foundation · David Kahan Family Foundation · Deroy Testamentary Foundation · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation · WK Kellogg Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Elaine Stern Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Elaine Stern Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Elaine Stern Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Elaine Stern Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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